Turkey's resistance image forged as pepper spray burns woman in red dress

It is a two-minute walk from Ceyda Sungur's second-floor office to Gezi Park, a rare green space in Istanbul's teeming centre. Last Tuesday, Sungur was among a small group of people who made their way to the park to defend it from the diggers that had moved in to flatten it. The bulldozers had begun tearing out chunks the previous day.

What happened next would transform Sungur – an academic at Istanbul's Technical University – into a global symbol of anti-government resistance. She had dashed out from the university's urban planning department in a red summer cotton dress. She wore a simple necklace and carried a white shoulder bag.

When Sungur arrived she found a line of riot police. One of them crouched down and fired pepper spray directly into her face. The jet sent her hair billowing upwards. As she turned, the masked policeman leapt forward and hosed down her back. The unprovoked attack left her and other activists choking and gasping for breath; afterwards Sungur collapsed on a bench.

A Reuters photographer, Osman Orsal, captured the moment, creating an image which in the ensuing days went viral ....